


I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing

by Katzedecimal



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, Johnlock Gift Exchange, Pining, Soulmates, justjohnlockstuff, secretlythevillain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 00:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5518268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katzedecimal/pseuds/Katzedecimal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody knew where the Coke bottles came from.  You just woke up and found yours in the fridge when you turned sixteen.  John's had appeared in the afternoon, after church. </p>
<p>Everyone he knew had found theirs in the morning, right after they woke up. </p>
<p>For the #justjohnlockstuff gift exchange, for Secretlythevillain.  Merry Christmas :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [secretlythevillain](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=secretlythevillain).



Nobody knew where they came from. You just woke up and found them in the fridge when you turned sixteen. John Watson's had appeared in the afternoon. It was a Sunday and the family had come back from church, before going out for the dinner party. He'd gone to make a sandwich, opened the fridge and there it was, its red and white label proudly proclaiming _Share a Coke with Mary._

He felt its weight in his jacket pocket and took a sip of wine, wiping his moustache nervously. 

He was pretty sure he'd found her. They'd met about six or seven months ago, eighteen months after... after his best friend had leaped to his death off of John's training hospital. It felt like he'd taken half of John's soul with him. It still did. Then Mary had come into his life and soothed the ache tremendously but it still hurt. Maybe it always would. 

Mary was.. amazing. Wonderful. Shorter than Sherlock and pale in hair and skin. She was intelligent but gentle, not boisterous and arrogant like Sherlock. She swayed through the world rather than cutting a swath like Moses parting the Red Sea. She was good for him. Yes. Mary was good for him. 

He felt the weight of the bottle in his jacket pocket. And when she sat down, he cleared his throat and gave it to her. 

* * * * 

Harry didn't arrive for the wedding. John was furious. Harriet should have been there, she was his only family left alive, and she couldn't even show up for his wedding...!!!

All she would say was, she couldn't watch him marry the wrong one. 

His stomach twisted. And when he looked up at Sherlock's face, saw the smile fade and the broken-hearted look flash briefly across his best friend's features, John turned toward his new wife and ushered her to the dance floor, and blamed the butterflies in his stomach on his nerves. He was going to be a father, after all. 

* * * * 

Nobody knew where they came from. You just woke up and found it in the fridge when you turned sixteen. John's had appeared in the afternoon, after church. 

Everyone he knew had found theirs in the morning, right after they woke up. 

* * * * 

He lay panting in bed, his erection throbbing. He'd been dreaming about Sherlock, about when they'd first met, when they first moved in together. When Sherlock had invited him along on a case. Beside him, Mary sighed in her sleep. 

_"Want to see some more?"_

He wondered if a Coke had appeared in Sherlock's fridge, on the morning when he'd turned sixteen. 

* * * * 

Apparently, one had. 

Apparently, it had read _Share a Coke with Janine._

* * * *

Orrrrr... Apparently not. 

* * * * 

"Johnny?"

"Harry? What's wrong?"

"I need you to come. Johnny, I need you to come. It's important."

"What is? What is it? Harry, what's wrong?"

"I went through another of James's old boxes and I found a key. He had a safe deposit box."

"Yes, alright?"

"Please come. I can't tell you over the phone."

"Harry, I haven't got time for this."

"Johnny, please come."

John sighed and rolled his eyes, and he went.

* * * *

_"Johnny -_

_I guess if you're reading this, I wasn't able to give it back to you properly. You're in the army now and I'm driving lorry and anything can happen to either of us, right? Well what matters is you get this back. It's your real Coke. Da was up early on your sixteenth birthday. He found it in the fridge and well you know what Da's like. He took your Coke and he binned it and then he went out and he bought one of the fake store Cokes with a girl's name on it, Mary or Martha or something like that. I couldn't believe he'd done that. I'm not like Da, I don't care that your Coke has a chap's name on it. I fished your real Coke from the bin and I've held onto it and kept it safe. I figured I could give it back to you after you were gone to university or out on your toddle but you've joined the army instead. Anyways, here's your real Coke. I hope you find each other and be happy._

_\- James Watson_ "

Harry was crying openly. "He did it to you too," she was sobbing, "He threw out your Coke too. That bastard! He got up early on purpose and he binned your Coke too. Oh Johnny...! All those years!"

John stared at the bottle in his late older brother's safe deposit box, its red and white label proudly reading _Share a Coke with Sherlock._

* * * *

He stood beside Mary, watching the plane taxi down the runway. He blinked, blinked again, but his vision just blurred more. "I'll just... I need a moment," he told Mary, and walked a few steps away. Behind him, he heard the plane's engines whine as it prepared for take-off. He looked up to see Mycroft approaching. 

"He wanted you to have this," he said quietly. 

John took the bottle, its red and white label proudly declaring _Share a Coke with Hamish._

The east wind ruffled his hair.


End file.
